Student Government and the Cubic Zirconia of Cultural Capital

In a fit of wide-eyed naivete and a desire to spin my web of network ties outside of the inbred ones that tend to characterize my department, I signed up to be a representative of the Graduate Student Government at my university. Not surprisingly, the whole thing turns out to be very ceremonial, politically inert and symbolic - hardly a surprise for a sociologist. The personalities I've encountered are interesting from a social science perspective. As far as I've surmised, student government is a forum for two kinds of people:

1) Overachieving do-gooders with Type-A personalities

2) Angry, lonely and/or neurotic people who want a forum to publicly bitch in and feel important

In regards to the former, it may be relevant that both the President and VP are both children of privilege. One is the niece of a state governor and the member of an eminent family from a wealthy district in a wealthy city. The VP is a guy who went to a NESCAC school, and apparently talks a lot about hanging out in Kennebunkport on his MySpace. I suppose when the orthodoxy and mainstream institutions have been going your way for all of your life, you're inclined to beleive in them, or at least try to preserve the status quo. I admire them for how hard they work and dedication, but at the same time, it is a bit scary to see people so committed to a student organization with the political clout of a kangaroo court.

Fortunately, I've found a partner in crime on the council who sees the absurdity of many of the arguments and discussions we have, and we enjoy whipsering the occasional humorous remark to each other. The VP's wardrobe (and general dorky mannerisms) provide a good deal of comedic fodder. Doused with preppy-masculine hubris, he donned his usual sweater-vest and tie for the meeting tonight (a maroonish pink and a slightly different shade of red for his vest and shirt, with a green tie - yes, that's how he thinks a good pretty boy should dress). However, most egregiously bad was his expensive tailored navy pants, which had skiiers embroidered all over them. This also wasn't the first time he's proudly adorned himself in such tackiness. This summer, he raised eyebrows by wearing white and green shorts with whales resembling Pucky the Whale of the Hartford Whalers embroidered all over them.

Anyhow, there is a point to all of this, and it's not typical grad school carping...

My friend and I were discussing the absurdity that the Veep spent what had to be at least a few hundred dollars on an outfit that made him look that tacky. Further, he obviously wanted to be adorned with the skiiers and whales, and was willing to pay a lot of money to do so, which makes the choice even more egregiously bad. That raised the question of what kind of shop would sell such expensive, but horrifically tacky clothes. I recall Jeremy Freese once musing that upscale preppy clothes places like The Gap blatantly stock their shelves with ugly shirts in order to make other shirts look like a great find/buy. Howver, ugly and tacky are completely different things, and we surmised that even places like J. Crew, The Gap, Banana Republic etc. wouldn't sell such horrifically tacky and expensive men's clothes. These things are status and market signals, after all.

So, we wondered where the Veep buys his clothes, as he clearly makes very conscious decisions with his wardrobe. I guessed that there's some little-known shop in Greenwich, CT that Ivy League-reject Young Turks who ache to conspicuously lavish themselves with (what they think is) cultural capital know about via their prep school social networks. I can't think of who else would buy expensive clothes with skiiers and whales embroidered on them. Further, that also leaves unanswered who the designers and manufacturers who believe/know this stuff will sell...